Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey into the Heart of Sri Lanka's Civil War

"Tea" is a fairly good description of recent Sri Lankan history on its ride down the slippery slope to nowhere. It is difficult to know when the author was in Sri Lanka but it looks as if it was some time prior to January 2005. A lot has changed since then, most notably the end of the war with the LTTE. That of course has changed nothing in terms of resolving the issues between the Tamil and Singhalese, although the government would have you think otherwise. I lived for a year in Sri Lanka in 2008 in a small village south of Galle. Shortly after I arrived I talked with an official of the ICRC who had been working with the refugees in the north of the country. He said that when he goes into a conflict area he usually has sympathies for one side or the other but of course he does not voice those sympathies. He said in the case of Sri Lanka it is a plague on both their houses. The brutality of the LTTE is well known - but in defense of the Tamil people, their legitimate aspirations and grievances were, from the very beginning, high jacked by a group of people who were nothing but thugs and common criminals. What is less well known is the brutality and ruthlessness of the Sri Lankan government. I remember reading a Sri Lankan newspaper report of one of the latest ongoining battles up north. The report described a situation where two large trucks were spotted laden with wounded men from the LTTE. The newspaper triumphantly announced that the trucks and all the men in them were killed when they were blown up and strafed by the Sri Lankan Air Force. To so nonchalantly report such atrocities by their own troops, I thought was stunning in its arrogance and brutality. I am still waiting for the definitive analyses of the tragedy that is Sri Lanka.

[cross posted from my blog]Finding himself in Europe when 9-11 happened, Meadows watched from the outside as our government and media conjured up a boogie-man of 'terrorist' that quickly took on a hype beyond even the events of that day. Questioning what he was being told to fear, and feeling that the best way to deal with fear of the unknown is to make it known, he decided to spend some time meeting some terrorists and finding out what makes them, well I suppose 'tick' is a poor choice of word.After a little research he settled on Sri Lanka as his petri dish, flew down to the tourist capital Colombo, rented a motorcycle and headed north to the home of the Tamil Tigers and what has essentially been a war zone for ~30 years. The Tamil Tigers having the unique distinction of having invented suicide bombing and exporting that to other terrorist organizations.Thus begins a very unique travelogue. It's part introspective, part narrative. A look at the horrors people can commit, and the beauty that people can find in living their lives despite this.Mark comes off as two parts Indy Jones (playing motorcycle bullfighter with trucks, getting escorts at gunpoint, etc) and one part Mr Magoo (leaving the road to investigate a bombed out tank, only to realized he'd wandered to the middle of a minefield).All the while he approaches his adventures with the type of drink-heartily-of-life gusto to which we should all aspire.If you are looking for an insight into the mind of a terrorist (he meets and interviews several), a portrait of a beautiful country, or a great story of travel and adventure, this book is for you. It delivers on all three counts.

I agree with Abhaya's two star review.This book didn't end up being the impressive read that I initially expected it to be. Although I found a foreigner's Sri Lankan travel log something of an interesting novelty, there were many moments where the author's paradigm created limitations to his ability to comment on the state of the island. Throughout the book, he was an outsider looking through a window, a window composed of foggy glass. He was able to see things, but not to the point where he could flesh them out and provide us with a satisfying explanation.Some of his historical/cultural facts and observations were either incorrect or questionable. One or two of his experiences sounded completely fabricated (from the local point of view). Its unfortunate that the misinformation Meadows encountered has found a way to spread to the rest of the world via this publication. I'm also not quite sure if he truly managed to interview anyone important, or if the people he did actually interview even took him seriously. I've had the opportunity to meet people of high caliber involved with the war, and they were much more well spoken and insightful. I'm led to believe they didn't take him seriously, hence the weak interview dialogues.This book has its moments every now and then, and is therefore worth a quick read, but none of those moments are related Sri Lanka's culture and the recent civil war. The special parts of this book are related to other topics that are more generic.I don't mean to sound crass, but the only people who would praise this book seriously are people who are very unfamiliar and new to the subject of Sri Lanka's recent situation..